ChangeMakers: Disruptors Transforming the World for Good

In April 2018 global changemakers converged at Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in Fairfield, Iowa, to explore what it takes to make a seismic difference on this planet.

By Reuven Zelinkovsky

"ChangeMakers: Disruptors Transforming the World for Good” was the first event in a new Changemaking Series, hosted by MUM and the David Lynch Foundation (DLF). Each of the speakers—including filmmaker David Lynch, humanitarian Father Gabriel Mejia, and MoveOn.org’s Laura Dawn—perceived a clear need for foundational changes in their fields and disrupted the status quo to find solutions.

Father Gabriel Mejia was moved by the unwanted children in the streets of Colombia and found a mission to rescue and restore the dignity to the lives of over 100,000 of these children and young adults. David Lynch has been a global disruptor--setting groundbreaking directions in the art world, while his Foundation has brought meditation-based relief from stress to over 600,000 children and other at-risk populations. Father Gabriel and David Lynch are two of these "disruptors" headlining the ChangeMakers event. Other presenters at the conference included: Laura Dawn, Social Consciousness Transformer Chief Creative, ART NOT WAR Daron Murphy, Multimedia Raconteur Revolutionary Creative Director, ART NOT WAR Nakisha Hobbs, Education Leadership Innovator Principal, Village Leadership Academy Dusty Baxley, Healer of Wounded Warriors Executive Director, Boulder Crest Retreats Ra Frye, Grassroots Community Organizer Founder, Gang Passages/Pride ROC Carmen Terrones, Social Justice Activator Senior Associate/Independent Consultant

This Changemakers event and the upcoming expanded conference series are both part of an initiative by MUM to help students harness their unique talents to facilitate positive change in the world. The ChangeMakers conference inspired ChangeMaking Month at MUM--a series of workshops, art displays, and films organized by MUM Student Government to inspire students to think of what it takes to become a change maker.

The overall theme has been “Transform Yourself, Transform the World.” ​ "All of us are potential changemakers, living in a world that constantly changes. If we can learn to ride these waves of change and exert our own unique influence on them, we will have found the changemaker within,” according to the event producer, Michael Sternfeld.

Added Student Government president Cris Evergreen, “The idea of [ChangeMaking Month] is to hone in on what it is exactly you want to do when you leave MUM, the ideas you have to make the world a better place – and how you can make that come to fruition.”